Encyclopedia > Specialization

  Article Content

Specialization

Concept B is a specialization of concept A if and only if:
  • every instance of concept B is also an instance of concept A; and
  • there are instances of concept A which are not instances of concept B.

For instance, 'Bird' is a specialization of 'Animal' because every bird is an animal, and there are animals which are not birds (dogs, for instance).

In logic, specialisation occurs when you take a statement such as:

"All cars are red"

And use it to derive statements such as:

"My car is red"
"Fred's car is red"

Specialisation is an important way to generate propositional knowledge, by applying general knowledge, such as the theory of gravity[?], to specific instances, such as "when I release this apple, it will fall to the floor".

Generalization is the opposite of specialisation



All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

 
  Search Encyclopedia

Search over one million articles, find something about almost anything!
 
 
  
  Featured Article
Wheatley Heights, New York

... Islander, 4.15% from other races, and 3.73% from two or more races. 11.67% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race. There are 1,455 households out of which ...

 
 
 
This page was created in 39 ms